Outrageous vintage cigarette ads

Ask Your Dentist

In this 1931 ad, an ear, nose and throat
doctor holding a "germ-proof" pack of Camel cigarettes attests to the
brand's ability to filter the "peppery dust . . . that makes you cough."

In 1962 the Royal
College of Physicians in England issued the first major report warning of
smoking's dangers. Two years later, the U.S. Surgeon General issued its own
report on health risks from smoking. It led to Congress passing a law requiring
warning labels on tobacco products (which President Johnson signed on July 27,
1965) and, eventually, imposing tighter restrictions on cigarette advertising in print and broadcasting.

But before those
restrictive laws took effect, cigarette manufacturers' ads blew smoke about the
health hazards. Some even featured doctors selling the medicinal effects of
smoking.

Explore our
gallery of ads, from the collection of Stanford School of Medicine.

By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan

Credit: Stanford School of Medicine

Goods For What Ails You

This 1881 Wilcox & Co. ad for Cigares
De Joy makes the claim that they benefit those suffering from "asthma, cough bronchitis, hay-fever, influenza,
and shortness of breath."

Credit: Stanford School of Medicine

A Cure For Asthma

This 1890 ad for Dr. Batty's Asthma Cigarettes warns
against administering them to your kids unless they are at least six years old.

Credit: Stanford School of Medicine

Doctors Prefer

This 1930 Luckies ad featuring a reassuringly jovial doctor was
part of the brand's campaign suggesting that "20,679 physicians"
had deemed Lucky Strike cigarettes to be "less irritating."

Credit: Stanford School of Medicine

Health Cigar

In this 1930 ad, Dr. G. Edward Roehrig, a
Los Angeles physician, endorsed Thomson's
Mell-o-well cigars as a "health cigar" that would remove such
irritants as "nicotines, glycerides, albuminoids and carbons -- dangerous
when used to excess by those who are physically below par."

Dr.
Roehrig died in 1938 from lung cancer.

Credit: Stanford School of Medicine

Open Wide...

The mirror-wielding dentist exudes authority about the medical
advantages of Viceroy cigarettes in this 1949 ad.

Credit: Stanford School of Medicine

A Word Of Advice

This 1946 Camels ad used the idea of surveys by an "independent research organization" to promote the idea
that more physicians smoke Camels than other brands. Readers who may have been doubtful were assured the research featured "actual statements from
doctors themselves. Figures were checked and re-checked."

Credit: Stanford School of Medicine

What's Secondhand Smoke?

This
1951 Marlboro ad both pours on the kitsch with a cute baby, and lays on the parental
guilt ("Just one question, Mom: Can you afford not to smoke?").

Credit: Stanford School of Medicine

Kids + Cigs = Cute

St.
Dunstan's cigarettes' charity for war veterans may have been the feel-good
message of this 1922 British ad, but watching a tyke light up is anything but
feel-good.

Credit: Stanford School of Medicine

St. Nick

Cigarette
ads featuring the kid-friendly figure of Santa Claus have been numerous,
including this 1920 ad for Murad.

Power Of Positive Thinking

Smoking Kills (others)!

While cigarette manufacturers' ads avoided the personal
harm to come from smoking, Allstate insurance wasn't averse to
using cigarettes as a tool of distracted driving in this 1940 advertisement,
whose story tells of a driver rummaging in his pocket for a light only to run
down a little girl. See? Cigarettes are
hazardous to the health of those who get in your way.

Credit: Stanford School of Medicine

Celebrity Sales Pitches

Countless
movie stars and celebrities have promoted smoking in ads and commercials, so
it's not surprising that some suffered smoking-related cancers and other
ailments, such as (clockwise from top left) Betty Grable (lung cancer), Spencer
Tracy (heart disease), Barbara Stanwyck (congestive heart failure), Louis
Armstrong (heart attack), Susan Hayward (lung and brain cancer), and John Wayne
(lost a lung to cancer).

Credit: Stanford School of Medicine

Jesse Owens

Track
star and Olympic athlete Jesse Owens promoted White Owl cigars in this undated ad. In 1980 he died of
lung cancer.

Credit: Stanford School of Medicine

Back To The Stone Age

The animated stars of "The Flintstones" also shilled Winston cigarettes (an early sponsor of the show) in a series of cartoon commercials in the 1960s. At far left is a Hanna-Barbera production cel from a 1960 commercial featuring Fred Flintstone lighting up with Stone-Age technology.

Credit: Profiles in History/YouTube

Doctor On Call

Even in this ad, from as recent as 1993, a white
coat-wearing model hawks Kool cigarettes, continuing the premise of medical
backing.

Credit: Stanford School of Medicine

Purity

In
an example of ads claiming scientific proof of the healthfulness of their
products, this 1931 Chesterfield advertisement says it has on good authority
that "Chesterfield cigarettes are just as pure as the water you
drink."